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UEFA Group 1 Preview

Denmark were the top seeded team in this group, based on the at times exciting performances of their team in the 1980s. Denmark had nevertheless a somewhat disappointing 1988 Euro, and several important players from the Danes’ great team had since retired from international football, like Lerby, Elkjær, Morten Olsen. Piontek remained the team manager, but had to acknowledge that he now would need to start a rebuilding project for the Danish team.

Denmark were the only team of the four that had qualified for the Euros, but all the tree remaining teams had in fact been runners-up in their groups. Bulgaria (2nd seeded) had been desperately close to qualifying, however losing everything in the dying minutes of the last match, with Eire going through instead. They were a team always to be reckoned with, and a couple of good results under new head coach Boris Angelov and the emerging talent of Hristo Stoichkov suggested that they were clear contenders for the top spot position.

Also Romania (3rd) had come close to qualifying for the 1988 Euros, but again failed to make it to a major tournament. There was no shame to finish behind Spain, but with the evident talent which Emerich Jenei possessed in his squad, there was a feeling that the team could compete at the very best stage. Nothing indicated that Romania would stand any weaker this time around, and Romania would no doubt give Denmark a good run for the no1 position.

Greece (4th) stood little chance against Holland in the qualifiers for the Euro, but still they finished nicely as runner-up, ahead of decent teams like Hungary and Poland. Even though the ranking behind Bulgaria and Romania probably was fair, the last qualifiers gave a certain hope to Greece. With Saravakos spear-heading the attack, the Greeks might have the star man that could shoot them to Italia’90.